Dealspotr’s network of influencers includes notable bloggers and social media personalities across a wide range of topics and interests, but all with a focus on frugal living and saving money. In our weekly Influencer Spotlight, we invite one influencer to share their experiences and success stories with the rest of our community. If you’d like to be featured, send me a message via Dealspotr.
Erin Huffstetler has been in the blogging business since the beginning, starting over 14 years ago. And right off the bat, she knew just what she was going to write about - frugal living. She moved on to writing from About.com for a while before starting her own blog, MyFrugalHome.com, about 5 years ago. On her blog, Erin helps people find easy ways to live on a budget, but still live well. Now, she's here to share her blogging secrets with you, the Dealspotr community.
Hey, I’m Erin. I live in Tennessee with my husband and two daughters. Living frugally is my day job. How many people can say that? I share my frugal living tips and adventures over on MyFrugalHome.com.
MyFrugalHome.com is all about showing people how to live well for less. I want people to see that living frugally isn’t about doing without. It’s about finding creative ways to fit the things that are important to you into your budget. My family eats well, dresses well and does all the fun things that other people do, we just don’t spend a bunch of money doing it. This has allowed us to accomplish some pretty big things. A couple years back we bought a cabin on 35 acres, and in three-and-a-half years, we’ll have our house paid for.
I started writing about frugal living over 14 years ago. Back then there were only a couple frugal living websites, and blogging wasn’t even a thing yet. In 2007 I took over the frugal living topic for About.com. I still write for them today, but my articles now live over on thebalance.com (a new site they launched last year). I launched my own site, myfrugalhome.com, five years ago. It gives me a spot to share fun things like a home tour and our cabin renovations, alongside all the how-tos, recipes and printables that I’ve always done.
My Christmas Under $100 post was probably one of my biggest. I always aim to buy all of my Christmas presents for under $100, and my readers love to see what I’m able to get for the money.
I believe in keeping things simple, so I only share projects that are easy to replicate. We’re all crazy busy these days, so saving money needs to be easy.
I like how up to date Dealspotr stays. I can count on it to have the latest deals from my favorite stores (and that means I don’t have to keep up with them myself).
I think the biggest thing is an authentic, trustworthy voice. I’m a real person sharing my real experiences, and my readers have come to know that they can trust the information that I share. It’s disappointing when you try something you see on a blog or Pinterest and it ends up being a major flop. I put a lot of energy into testing things out, so that they’ll work for you. I’m willing to waste my ingredients finding 95 ways not to make a cake mix, so you don’t have to.
Do it because you care deeply about the topic that you’re going to write about; don’t do it for the money. It takes a long time to build up a blog’s income (those overnight success stories aren’t the norm). But if you put your readers first, you’ll get there eventually.
Every blog is different, so the tools that work for me may not work for someone else. Just make it a priority to work with the best of the best. I only work with companies that share my values and ethics. That means saying no to a lot of opportunities, and moving on when a relationship isn’t working for you. I love my ad network and hosting company, so I’m sticking with them. I’m not happy with the company that I currently use for e-mail marketing, so I won’t be a customer much longer.
A few years back a film crew flew in from Paris to follow my family around the World’s Longest Yard sale. That was pretty cool.
I admire any blogger that puts their readers first. Bloggers are constantly approached by companies that want to pay you to write about their product in exchange for money or swag. You can’t let that lead your content decisions. It just turns your blog into one big advertisement. If you sound like you’re for sale, your readers won’t trust what you have to say.
My printables are consistently my most successful, and I think that’s because they offer immediate solutions to everyday problems.
Blogging is challenging. You have to juggle a million different tasks (and figure out how to be good at all of them), and you’ll never catch up on your to-do list. You just won’t. There are a million moments along the way that will make you want to throw up your hands in defeat, but at the end of the day, if you believe what you’re doing is important, you won’t walk away from it. You just don’t quit a passion.
"Pure Genius" is my favorite at the moment. "Scorpion" is good, too. And I have a definite weakness for all the Masterpiece series' on PBS and BBC. I’m currently enjoying the new series, "Victoria," and watching old episodes of "Poldark."
Anything off of a food truck. We don’t have many in our area, so I’m always on the lookout for food trucks when we travel.
Shoot, I’ll have dinner with anyone who wants to make me dinner. I stay super busy, so having someone else cook is a treat.
You can read Erin's blog at MyFrugalHome.com. You can also follow her on Dealspotr, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
Are you a blogger or social media influencer who loves sharing advice on saving money? Dealspotr is a rapidly growing community of deal hunters and savvy shoppers - join our Influencer Network to gain visibility, earn perks, take on paid gigs, and help people save money.
